This section provides background information related to the present disclosure, which is not necessarily prior art.
Vehicles including cargo beds, such as pickup trucks, are popular because they enable objects of various sizes to be placed in the bed for transportation. The bed generally has a floor surface that is bounded by a front wall, side walls, and a back wall, which is typically in the form of a tailgate. The tailgate is movable to facilitate placement of objects into and out of the bed.
A cover, such as a tonneau cover, can be used to enclose the bed, and to conceal or otherwise protect the contents thereof. In a closed or extended position, the tonneau cover extends across the bed, and a header portion of the tonneau cover is latched down proximate to the tailgate. In an open or stowed position, the cover is removed or opened to generally expose at least a portion of the bed and permit access to the contents thereof. To open the tonneau cover, the header is unlatched by actuating both a driver's side latch mechanism. Some tonneau covers have a passenger's side latch mechanism, which can provide added security. Such a passenger's side latch mechanism must be manually unlatched, which is inconvenient.
While such current tonneau covers are suitable for their intended use, they are subject to improvement. For example and with respect to tonneau covers that have latch mechanisms on both the driver's side and the passenger's side, requiring a driver to manually unlatch both a driver's side latch mechanism and a passenger's side latch mechanism is inconvenient and time consuming: the driver must unlatch the driver's side latch mechanism and then walk to the other side of the vehicle to unlatch the passenger's side latch mechanism, for example. The present teachings advantageously provide for an improved tonneau cover system that eliminates the need to individually unlatch both a driver's side latch mechanism and a passenger's side latch mechanism. As a result, the tonneau cover can be unlatched and opened easily and quickly. The present teachings provide for numerous additional advantages and unexpected results, as described herein and as one skilled in the art will recognize.